Vayomithram Project

What is the Vayomithram project?

Vayomithram is a project of the Kerala Social Security Mission (KSSM), run under the Social Justice Department, Government of Kerala, and implemented jointly with local self-government institutions. Vayomithram was started with special attention to the health care and social security of the elderly as part of implementing the state's old age policy.

According to the Kerala Social Security Mission, Vayomithram delivers free medicines through mobile clinics, palliative care, and help-desk support to senior citizens above the age of 65 living in corporation and municipal areas. The project is implemented as a joint initiative with the LSGD, the municipality or corporation; in each area.

The transliterated Malayalam name is written both as Vayomithram and Vayomitram in KSSM material, and readers searching either spelling are looking at the same project.

Where Vayomithram runs. Vayomithram is currently implemented in 6 Corporations, 85 Municipal Corporation areas and 4 Block Panchayats of the state, with 95 Vayomithram units functioning. In 2023-24 the project recorded 2,89,580 beneficiaries.

How Vayomithram grew. The project began functioning in the 2010-11 financial year in Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram Corporations, and was extended to 12 district headquarters in 2011-12. Nine new projects were started in 2012-13 and two more in 2013-14, taking the total to 25 projects at that stage, before the further expansion that produced today's 95 units. KSSM has continued to add projects based on the priority of basic support offered by each municipality: Marad (Ernakulam), Manjeri and Kottakkal (Malappuram), Vadakara (Kozhikode) and Chalakkudy (Thrissur) municipalities were among those that expressed interest.

Who is eligible for Vayomithram?

A person can use Vayomithram if:

• The person is a senior citizen above the age of 65 years.
• The person resides in a corporation, municipality or covered block panchayat area where a Vayomithram unit functions.
• For the mobile clinic service specifically, no economic criterion applies at all, the Kerala Social Security Mission states plainly that "there is no economic criteria for availing the service", so an APL senior citizen has the same access as a BPL senior citizen.

A person is not eligible if:

• The person is below 65 years of age. Vayomithram's target group is fixed at senior citizens above 65, and younger elderly persons cannot claim the free medicines under this project.
• The person lives in an area with no Vayomithram unit. Because the project is implemented ward by ward inside covered urban bodies, a senior citizen in a grama panchayat outside the 95 units cannot access it locally, and there is no provision to travel in and register from outside the project area.

Note the deliberate design choice here: Vayomithram is not means-tested. That is unusual among Kerala's social security schemes and it is the single most misunderstood point about the project. A senior citizen who assumes they will be turned away for holding an APL ration card is wrong.

What does Vayomithram provide?

The Kerala Social Security Mission groups Vayomithram's benefits under four heads.

1. Mobile clinic service. Vayomithram provides medicines free of cost by conducting mobile clinics on a ward basis in the project area. Each mobile unit comprises a Medical Officer, a Staff Nurse and a JPHN (Junior Public Health Nurse). This is the backbone of the project. A doctor-led clinic that comes to the ward rather than requiring an 80-year-old to travel to a district hospital.

2. Vathilppadi Sevanam and palliative care for the bedridden. Vayomithram provides free check-up, medicines and palliative care at home for elderly bedridden patients in the project area. Specially trained nurses and JPHNs are available for this service.

3. Help desk for the elderly. Help desks function in all Vayomithram offices and clinics to provide information to the elderly. The coordinators and doctors also provide counselling to elderly people experiencing isolation and mental conflict, a service that matters because social isolation, not only physical illness, is what Vayomithram was set up to address.

4. Other services.

• Special medical camps in the project area, such as eye camps.
• Special entertainment programmes such as Sallapam and Snehayathra, conducted mainly for destitute elderly in old age homes and for Vayomithram beneficiaries.
• Vayojana clubs, which function actively in project areas.
• Sponsorship programmes run with the help of NGOs and institutions.
• Special day programmes related to health and welfare.
• Active involvement in social issues affecting the elderly, including rehabilitation.

What documents do you need for Vayomithram?

How to apply for Vayomithram services

1. Find the nearest Vayomithram office or unit for your corporation or municipality. The Kerala Social Security Mission's answer to how to apply for Vayomithram is simply that the elderly can avail help from the nearest Vayomithram office: there is no separate application form to fill.
2. Attend the mobile clinic when it visits your ward. Clinics run on a ward rotation, so ask the Vayomithram coordinator or your ward councillor for the schedule in your ward.
3. Carry an age proof and any previous prescriptions to the clinic so the Medical Officer can see what you are already taking and dispense the right medicines free of cost.
4. For a bedridden elderly person, inform the Vayomithram office or the coordinator instead of trying to bring the patient to the clinic, and ask for Vathilppadi Sevanam, the home visit service, to be arranged.
5. For information, counselling or a non-medical problem, use the help desk at the Vayomithram office rather than the clinic queue.

Why might a senior citizen be turned away from Vayomithram?

• Age below 65 years, the fixed threshold for the project's target group.
• Residence outside a Vayomithram project area, since the 95 units cover specific corporations, municipalities and block panchayats rather than the whole state.
• No age proof produced, making it impossible to confirm the 65-year threshold at the clinic.
• Seeking a cash benefit. Vayomithram delivers services and medicines in kind. A senior citizen looking for a monthly pension needs a different scheme and should ask the Vayomithram help desk which one fits.

An income or ration card objection is not a valid ground, the project applies no economic criteria, and a beneficiary told otherwise should raise it with the Vayomithram coordinator or the Kerala Social Security Mission.

Where do you get help or complain about Vayomithram?

• Elderline: 14567, the helpline for senior citizens carried on the Kerala Social Justice Department's pages
• Kerala Social Security Mission, Poojappura, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695012 to 0471-2341200 (fax 0471-2346016), socialsecuritymission@gmail.com
• Directorate of Social Justice, Kerala, +91 471 2306040 or +91 471 2302887, swdkerala@gmail.com
• Public Grievance Cell of the Social Justice Department, reachable through sjd.kerala.gov.in
• Your municipality or corporation office, since Vayomithram is implemented jointly with the LSGD and the local body holds the ward-level schedule

Vayomithram services are free. No fee is payable for the mobile clinic consultation, for the medicines dispensed, or for the doorstep palliative visit.